Gap Analysis Project
Publications
Gap Analysis Project (GAP) Terrestrial Vertebrate Species Richness Maps for the Conterminous U.S.
The mission of the Gap Analysis Project (GAP) is to support national and regional assessments of the conservation status of vertebrate species and plant communities. This report explains conterminous United States species richness maps created by the U.S. Geological Survey for four major classes in the phylum Chordata: mammals, birds, reptiles,...
Gergely, Kevin J.; Boykin, Kenneth G.; McKerrow, Alexa J.; Rubino, Matthew J.; Tarr, Nathan M.; Williams, Steven G.
Integrating multiple data sources in species distribution modeling: A framework for data fusion
The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in the use of species distribution models (SDMs) to characterize patterns of species’ occurrence and abundance. Efforts to parameterize SDMs often create a tension between the quality and quantity of data available to fit models. Estimation methods that integrate both standardized and non-standardized...
Pacifici, Krishna; Reich, Brian J.; Miller, David A.W.; Gardner, Beth; Stauffer, Glenn E.; Singh, Susheela; McKerrow, Alexa J.; Collazo, Jaime A. Long-term fish monitoring in large rivers: Utility of “benchmarking” across basins
In business, benchmarking is a widely used practice of comparing your own business processes to those of other comparable companies and incorporating identified best practices to improve performance. Biologists and resource managers designing and conducting monitoring programs for fish in large river systems tend to focus on single river basins or...
Ward, David L.; Casper, Andrew F.; Counihan, Timothy D.; Bayer, Jennifer M.; Waite, Ian R.; Kosovich, John J.; Chapman, Colin; Irwin, Elise R.; Sauer, Jennifer S.; Ickes, Brian; McKerrow, Alexa J. A comparison of NLCD 2011 and LANDFIRE EVT 2010: Regional and national summaries.
In order to provide the land cover user community a summary of the similarity and differences between the 2011 National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) and the Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools Program Existing Vegetation 2010 Data (LANDFIRE EVT), the two datasets were compared at a national (conterminous U.S.) and regional (Eastern...
McKerrow, Alexa J.; Dewitz, Jon; Long, Donald G.; Nelson, Kurtis; Connot, Joel A.; Smith, Jim Uncertainty quantification and propagation for projections of extremes in monthly area burned under climate change: A case study in the coastal plain of Georgia, USA
Human‐caused climate change is predicted to affect the frequency of hazard‐linked extremes. Unusually large wildfires are a type of extreme event that is constrained by climate and can be a hazard to society but also an important ecological disturbance. This chapter focuses on changes in the frequency of extreme monthly area burned by wildfires...
Riley, Karin L.; Webley, Peter; Thompson, Matthew; Terando, Adam J.; Reich, Brian J.; Pacifici, Krishna; Costanza, Jennifer; McKerrow, Alexa J.; Collazo, Jaime A. Projected gains and losses of wildlife habitat from bioenergy-induced landscape change
Domestic and foreign renewable energy targets and financial incentives have increased demand for woody biomass and bioenergy in the southeastern United States. This demand is expected to be met through purpose-grown agricultural bioenergy crops, short-rotation tree plantations, thinning and harvest of planted and natural forests, and forest...
Tarr, Nathan M.; Rubino, Matthew J.; Costanza, Jennifer K.; McKerrow, Alexa J.; Collazo, Jaime A.; Abt, Robert C. Bioenergy production and forest landscape change in the southeastern United States
Production of woody biomass for bioenergy, whether wood pellets or liquid biofuels, has the potential to cause substantial landscape change and concomitant effects on forest ecosystems, but the landscape effects of alternative production scenarios have not been fully assessed. We simulated landscape change from 2010 to 2050 under five scenarios of...
Costanza, Jennifer K.; Abt, Robert C.; McKerrow, Alexa J.; Collazo, Jaime A. Normalized burn ratios link fire severity with patterns of avian occurrence
ContextRemotely sensed differenced normalized burn ratios (DNBR) provide an index of fire severity across the footprint of a fire. We asked whether this index was useful for explaining patterns of bird occurrence within fire adapted xeric pine-oak forests of the southern Appalachian Mountains.ObjectivesWe evaluated the use of DNBR indices for...
Rose, Eli T.; Simons, Theodore R.; Klein, Rob; McKerrow, Alexa J. Linking state-and-transition simulation and timber supply models for forest biomass production scenarios
We linked state-and-transition simulation models (STSMs) with an economics-based timber supply model to examine landscape dynamics in North Carolina through 2050 for three scenarios of forest biomass production. Forest biomass could be an important source of renewable energy in the future, but there is currently much uncertainty about how biomass...
Costanza, Jennifer; Abt, Robert C.; McKerrow, Alexa J.; Collazo, Jaime How a national vegetation classification can help ecological research and management
The elegance of classification lies in its ability to compile and systematize various terminological conventions and masses of information that are unattainable during typical research projects. Imagine a discipline without standards for collection, analysis, and interpretation; unfortunately, that describes much of 20th-century vegetation ecology...
Franklin, Scott; Comer, Patrick; Evens, Julie; Ezcurra, Exequiel; Faber-Langendoen, Don; Franklin, Janet; Jennings, Michael; Josse, Carmen; Lea, Chris; Loucks, Orie; Muldavin, Esteban; Peet, Robert K.; Ponomarenko, Serguei; Roberts, David G.; Solomeshch, Ayzik; Keeler-Wolf, Todd; Van Kley, James; Weakley, Alan; McKerrow, Alexa J.; Burke, Marianne; Spurrier, Carol Modeling climate change, urbanization, and fire effects on Pinus palustris ecosystems of the southeastern U.S.
Managing ecosystems for resilience and sustainability requires understanding how they will respond to future anthropogenic drivers such as climate change and urbanization. In fire-dependent ecosystems, predicting this response requires a focus on how these drivers will impact fire regimes. Here, we use scenarios of climate change, urbanization and...
Costanza, Jennifer; Terando, Adam J.; McKerrow, Alexa J.; Collazo, Jaime A. 2014-2015 Partnership accomplishments report on joint activities: National Gap Analysis Program and LANDFIRE
The intended target audience for this document initially is management and project technical specialist and scientists involved in the Gap Analysis Program (GAP) and the Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools - (LANDFIRE) program to help communicate coordination activities to all involved parties. This document is also intended to...
Davidson, Anne; McKerrow, Alexa J.; Long, Don; Earnhardt, Todd